Abstract: This paper studied the eco-hydrological function of typical forest ecosystems (mixed conifer and broadleaf forest ecosystem, evergreen broadleaved forest ecosystem, Phyllostachys pubescens forest ecosystem, and shrub ecosystem) in Three Gorges Reservoir area, taking cropland ecosystem as the control. The method of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was applied to establish the eco-hydrological hierarchy function model, and integrative grades were employed to give evaluation. For the canopy layer, shrub had the best eco-hydrological function (score = 0.979), being 1.5-2 times as high as other forest stands. For litter layer, the best eco-hydrological function also occurred in shrub (score = 1), and the worst was in P. pubescens forest (0.422). For the soil layer, shrub still performed the optimal eco-hydrological function (score = 0.921), and P. pubescens forest was still the worst (0.313). The cropland was reconstructed from the shrub land. Though the cropland and the shrub land had the same site condition, the eco-hydrological function of cropland ecosystem descended by about 50% after eight years of crop management. The final integrative evaluation showed that the eco-hydrological function of the test ecosystems was in the order of shrub (score = 0.95) > mixed conifer-broadleaf forest (0.52) and evergreen broadleaved forest (0.53) > P. pubescens forest (0.37) > cropland (0.33), suggesting that in Three Gorges Reservoir area, shrub ecosystem had the optimal eco-hydrological function, and the P. pubescens forest ecosystem was the worst. The eco-hydrological function of forest ecosystems was 1.12-2.9 times as high as the cropland ecosystem.

Key words: Broadleaved tree species, Seedling, Leaf nutrient contents, Cluster analysis